Bird Protection Services ... By Willow Hill

Old Welsh Road can be a dangerous place … for geese.

That was the thought behind Student Council’s most recent community service project.

The council helped organize the installation of two goose-crossing signs on Old Welsh Road next to Crestmont Park and across from the Cheesecake Factory restaurant at the mall. Well — the signs don’t say “goose-crossing,” it’s just a silhouette of a bird against a yellow sign … but you know the ones.

Members of the student council, wearing knit hats and gloves, walked from their school over to the park this morning and helped install one of the signs with the help of the Abington Public Works Department.

Student council president Jessica Miles said she lives in the area and noticed that several geese cross Old Welsh Road from Crestmont Park to the mall parking lot; she said the council decided to get some signs installed.

“We’re putting up the signs so less geese crossing the road get hit by cars,” Miles said. “So we emailed [Abington Public Works Director] Ed Micciolo and he said they already ordered signs and he invited us to help put them up.”

Micciolo, who was at the park this morning, said the student council offered to pay for the signs through its fundraising efforts — like the weekly sale of water ice on Wednesday — but said that township declined.  Now, the student council can focus on its upcoming fundraiser, the “Lap-a-Thon,” which raises money for juvenile diabetes and sickle cell anemia charities.

Micciolo said that geese return to the pond at Crestmont Park in the winter when it is not frozen, and they attempt to cross Old Welsh Road; he added that Old Welsh Road is one of the only areas in Abington where geese are killed by motorists.